Three days left: why debt super committee is poised to throw in the towel
| Washington
The deficit-reducing 鈥渟uper committee鈥� is nearly out of time to release a plan to cut at least $1.2 trillion off federal deficits over 10 years.
To put that task in context: The federal government is now borrowing nearly 40 cents for every dollar it spends. The 12-member committee is tasked to find a way to borrow about 3 cents less 鈥� and to persuade at least seven members to support it.
But the prospects for success are fading to black. By its own rules, the panel has until the end of Monday to release a plan for public scrutiny. By law, the panel must deliver a plan to Congress by Nov. 23. If Congress fails to pass the plan by Christmas, or if the super committee doesn鈥檛 produce a plan, then $1.3 trillion in automatic spending cuts are triggered beginning Jan. 3, 2013.
After weeks of silence about their closed-door negotiations, super committee members are now talking openly about why the other side is to blame for derailing a plan.
For Democrats, it鈥檚 that Republicans wouldn鈥檛 give enough on taxes for the rich. Sen. Patty Murray (D) of Washington, co-chair of the panel, told CNN鈥檚 鈥淪tate of the Union鈥� that she鈥檚 still 鈥渨illing to talk to any Republican who says, 鈥楲ook, my country is more important; this pile of bills is not going to go away.... We need to cross that divide.鈥� 鈥�
For Republicans, it鈥檚 that Democrats wouldn鈥檛 give enough on cutting the growth of spending on entitlements such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
鈥淯ntil we have the stroke of midnight I suppose on Monday, as long as we have members who have an opportunity to continue to talk, we鈥檒l continue to talk,鈥� Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R) of Texas, the panel鈥檚 other co-chair, told 鈥�Fox News 厂耻苍诲补测.鈥�
Both added that Congress would have other opportunities to fix the problem. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 so much of a failure as it was a failure to seize an opportunity,鈥� Representative Hensarling said. If not this opportunity, 鈥渢his nation better seize another one, or we will be in big economic trouble,鈥� he added.
Over nearly three months of negotiations, the panel held four public meetings, amid clamoring from public-interest groups to open up the full panel鈥檚 deliberations to public scrutiny. Apart from those public meetings, it now appears that the full panel never met.
Instead, members pursued ad hoc negotiations while consulting with party leaders, but without any authority to commit their respective caucuses on a vast array of options. While Congress gave the committee unusual powers to bring a plan to the floor without amendment or filibuster, it did not create unusual powers to come to an agreement.
鈥淎ll the nickname [鈥渟uper鈥漖 did was raise expectations about what the committee could and would do,鈥� says Stan Collender, a congressional budget expert at Qorvis Communications in Washington.
Over the past three months, other members of Congress called on the panel to reduce the deficit, stimulate the economy, reform the tax code, and extend expiring tax provisions. 鈥淭his was a super committee and not a superhero, and it was always absurd to think that it could do all of those things when any one of them by themselves would have been close to impossible,鈥� Mr. Collender adds.
President Obama, out of Washington until early Monday morning, could provide an 11th-hour assist by getting involved 鈥� as he did in resolving an impasse over extending the Bush tax cuts last December. However, this would be a late entry. The president has been largely absent from the debt talks, opting instead to step up a public campaign against a 鈥渄o nothing鈥� Congress.
鈥淎s a case study of a broken political system, you鈥檒l never see a clearer case than the Congressional budgetary Super Committee,鈥� writes Thomas Ferguson, an expert on money in politics and a political scientist at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, in an e-mail.
